The Road to You
by jmh1
Summary: Hayden Romero lives in Sioux Falls. Liam Dunbar doesn't know that. Hayden gets involved with a group of Hunters. Liam goes on a road trip. This is the stories of their separate adventures as they search for one another - though if you said that to Hayden which would categorically deny that she was doing such a thing.


**A/N: Set almost a year after Teen Wolf – Liam has finished Senior Year and Hayden is just about to start hers (Natalie Martin had Liam, Mason and Corey skip their Junior Year). Doesn't really fit into to Supernatural canon, though Dean has come back from Purgatory, but Bobby is still alive.**

Sioux Falls, South Dakota. An unassuming town, or so Hayden had thought. She was beginning to doubt that assessment now. Even in Beacon Hills she'd never seen a head just… fall off a guy's shoulders. That particular occurrence was the reason she was now sat, wrapped in a blanket, in Jody's office at the sheriff's station, talking to a man who seemed to be the town's resident hunter.

Of course Sioux Falls had its own resident hunter. What Hayden couldn't work out however, was whether Jody knew that the guy wasn't actually an FBI agent. The way they'd greeted each other suggested they at least knew each other, though they'd been too far away even for her enhanced hearing.

"Sheriff Mills told me you were the one to find the body," the man said. He'd flashed his FBI badge and introduced himself as Agent Willis. Not that Hayden believed him.

"I guess you could say that," Hayden said.

The hunter leaned forward slightly. "What would _you_ say?" he asked.

"I'd say that you wouldn't believe what I really saw," she said. Most likely, the man would believe her. That was his job. However, he wouldn't expect her to expect him to believe her. So, she would have to play the part of the ignorant girl, completely bemused the idea of the supernatural.

"Tell me what you really saw," the man said. "Maybe you were mistaken, maybe you weren't. But you seem like a good girl, Miss Clark. Sheriff Mills has vouched for you, and I happen to know that she is a very good judge of character. So, even if I believe you were mistaken, I'm not going to accuse you of lying, for whatever reason, because I don't think you'd do that."

"It just doesn't make any sense," Hayden said. "There was no one else around but me and him. I don't understand how it could have happened." That wasn't a lie. She really didn't know how it had happened. She supposed that it was possible that Corey wasn't the only person walking around with the ability to turn invisible. Probable even. The Dread Doctors had to have gotten his abilities from somewhere. But understanding and belief were two very different things. Hayden may not understand how the man had died, but that didn't mean she didn't believe her eyes.

"How what could have happened?" the hunter asked.

Hayden, who had been looking at her hands in her lap, looked up. "I didn't find the body," she said. "I watched him die."

The hunter blinked, but only once. That was all the indication she received that he'd been surprised by her revelation. His heart rate hadn't even changed. "So you saw what did it?"

Hayden noted he said 'what' rather than 'who', but didn't comment. "No. His head just spontaneously fell off his shoulders."

The hunter looked at her for a moment, probably trying to determine whether she was being sarcastic, considering the dead-pan voice she'd used. She suspected most people would berate her for making an inappropriate joke, but the man seemed to take her words at face value. One advantage of dealing with a hunter instead of law enforcement. Probably the only advantage for a werewolf like her.

The man nodded, and stood up to leave. He stopped to talk to Jody on his way out, closer to the office this time. Close enough that Hayden could hear what they said.

"You get anything useful, Singer?" Jody asked. Singer must be the hunter's real name.

"I got something," he replied. "I'm not surprised she reported that she found the body. No sane person would believe the story she told me. I'm surprised she said anything to be honest."

He was speaking quietly, and Jody's response was even more so, but she was still just about able to pick out the words. "What did she tell you?" she asked. "Did she see him die?"

Singer nodded. "Watched his head hit the pavement. Nobody else in sight."

"Clean decapitation doesn't sound like the work of a black dog…" Hayden didn't hear the rest as the two moved further away. One thing stuck in her head though, Jody was in the know. Hell, Jody was involved. And Hayden saw Jody almost every day.

She watched Singer exit the station, and saw her sister rush in almost immediately after. Before Val could reach the office, Jody pulled her aside, probably updating her on what happened. Jody was called Val in from her patrol when Hayden had been brought in. Hayden could she was worried. Val may not have known about the supernatural, but she was fully aware that Hayden had seen more than one dead body while they'd lived in Beacon Hills. That would never make her worry less, though.

The door opened softly, and her sister stepped in. She didn't say anything. Just sat next to her and wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm okay," Hayden said. "It's not like it's the first time."

"But it doesn't get easier," Val replied. "I learnt that working in Beacon Hills."

Hayden snorted lightly. "You would," she said. "I don't know how that town has never made the national news. It should be the murder capital of America."

Val smiled. "Very true," she said. "Are you sure that you're alright though?"

Hayden smiled and nodded. Val would always put her needs before her own. She had done ever since their mom had died in the car crash that left Hayden needing a kidney transplant.

"Good. I've still got a couple hours left on duty, but I can drive you home, and we can watch a girly movie when I get in, okay?" she said.

"Sounds like a plan. Guess that means you're not on the case?"

"Conflict of interest since you're the only witness. Luckily it means that for once I won't be the one staying late and working double shifts."

Hayden's smiled dropped slightly. Val had to work so hard to support them both and pay for her anti-rejection meds. It broke her heart, because she didn't even need them anymore. Since Scott had turned her from chimera to werewolf, her advanced healing meant that her body wouldn't reject the transplanted kidney anymore. But Hayden couldn't tell her sister that, because there was no rational explanation for it, and if there was one thing that Hayden was sure about, it was that her sister must never find out about the supernatural. Because as soon as she knew, she'd be involved, and that was too much danger for her to be in. It was the only reason that she'd agreed to move out of Beacon Hills. The only reason she'd agreed to move away from Liam.

They break-up hadn't been bad. Liam had understood why she was leaving, and they'd promised to catch up over the phone every now and then. Liam must have phoned her over two hundred times in the next two months, but she hadn't answered once. She knew that her resolve to stay away from Beacon Hills would crumble as soon as she heard his voice, so she forced herself to ignore his calls. He'd eventually given up and sent her a single text.

_I get that you don't want to talk, but at least tell me you're alive,_ he'd said.

She responded with a simple _I am,_ and promptly bought a new phone with a new number. She never deleted his number though. That was too final. As long as she had his number, she had a way back to him. The same with the rest of the pack. All of their numbers were save in her new phone. The only ones she ever spoke to her were Scott, who was still her alpha and checked in with her to make sure she was okay every so often, and Lydia, the one who she'd always talked to about any personal supernatural issues. Lydia was the one that she needed to speak to tonight.

"Are you still with me?" Val's voice jolted her out of her reverie.

"Sorry," Hayden said.

"Thinking about Liam again?" Val's tone was mocking, but not unkindly so. Hayden lowered her eyes. "If you really like him that much – still like him that much, you should call him," Val said.

"I can't, it's been too long. I can't expect him to take me back now, I ignored his calls for six months, then bought a new phone and didn't give him the number after texting him two words. He's probably moved on by now anyway."

* * *

Liam had, in fact, not moved on. He'd spent most of the summer break trying to convince Scott or Lydia to tell him where Hayden was living. He didn't understand why she didn't want him to know. Since Principal Martin had insisted that he, Mason and Corey graduate a year early, Liam had figured that he'd be able to have a year off before going to college. The plan had been to spend that year with Hayden and go to college together. But that plan relied on him knowing where she was which, despite his best attempt at puppy dog eyes – those had so nearly worked on Lydia the other day – he could not get either of his friends to tell him where she lived. Not even which state. He'd almost believed Scott the first time he said that she'd moved to Canada. He'd asked Lydia if it was true, but didn't even need to listen to her heart beat to know that she was lying when she said it was. Even Stiles, the person he could usually rely on to get that kind of information in secret, refused to help by hacking into Lydia's phone and tracing Hayden's calls to wherever she was living. FBI training was making him too responsible, less willing to bend the rules for his friend's benefit. He insisted that breaking the law was now only for life and death situations, though Liam was pretty sure that he illegally accessed the FBI Most Wanted list to look out for any supernatural cases in the country.

Liam's new plan was to take his new car, the one his parents had bought him as a congratulations for graduating a year early, and drive all over the States to try and find her. No one was too thrilled about that idea. Mason and Corey were going to go straight to college, and Liam's parents, Melissa and Scott had all tried to do the, 'Without trying to tell you what to do, I'm not comfortable with you spending a year on the road all by yourself.'

Funnily enough, it was Melissa who'd come closest to talking him out of it. That woman could be scary when she wanted to be. The compromise was that he would stay in Beacon Hills until Melissa and Chris got married in October, and then he could go off on his trip, so long as he checked in with someone every night and let them know where he was.

**A/N: So… I'm aware that Liam's being a little bit creepy with the road trip and he's going to realise this eventually as well.**


End file.
